Meet the CIS Team

Brent Waters
DIRECTOR
I earned my Ph.D. in Computer Science from Princeton University in 2004. From 2004-2005, I was a post-doctoral at Stanford University followed by work at SRI as a Computer Scientist. In 2008 I joined the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin. Then in 2019 I was recruited to NTT Research as a Distinguished Scientist. My research interests are within the realm of cryptography computer security. My work focuses on Identity-Based Cryptography, Functional Encryption, and code obfuscation. Recipient of numerous awards and invited papers, I am noted as a founder of Functional Encryption and Attribute-Based Encryption.
The CIS Lab Research Team

Elette Boyle
Senior Scientist
I am a Senior Scientist at NTT Research (arriving summer 2022), and an Associate Professor in the Efi Arazi School of Computer Science at IDC Herzliya, Israel. I received my PhD at MIT and BS at Caltech, both in Mathematics, and served as a postdoctoral fellow at Technion Israel and Cornell.
My research centers in the cryptographic foundations for safely maintaining and processing sensitive data. In particular, my recent focus has been on protocols for secure multi-party computation as well as underlying primitives such as function/homomorphic secret sharing.

Pratish Datta
SCIENTIST

Sanjam Garg
SENIOR SCIENTIST
I am a Senior Scientist at NTT Research, and an Associate Professor at University of California, Berkeley. I received my PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles and my BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. I am interested in various aspects of cryptography ranging for theoretical foundations to applications for consumer privacy. My recent research work has focused on foundational concepts in cryptography, such as public-key encryption, secure multiparty computation and cryptographic program obfuscation.

Vipul Goyal
SENIOR SCIENTIST
I am a senior scientist at NTT Research and an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at CMU. Previously, I was a researcher in the Cryptography and Complexity group at Microsoft Research, India. I received my PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles.
I am broadly interested in all areas of cryptography with a particular focus on the foundations of cryptography. Currently my research topics include secure multi-party computation, non-malleable cryptography, and foundations of blockchains. I am a recipient of several awards such as a JP Morgan faculty fellowship, a 2016 ACM CCS test of time award, a Microsoft Research graduate fellowship, and, a Google outstanding graduate student award. I was also named in the Forbes magazine 30 under 30 list of people changing science and healthcare in 2013.

Justin Holmgren
SCIENTIST

Yuichiro Kamada
SCIENTIST
I am a Scientist at NTT Research and an Associate Professor at Haas School of Business of University of California, Berkeley. I received a Bachelor degree in Agriculture at University of Tokyo in 2007 and then a PhD in Economics at Harvard University in 2012. After spending a year at Cowles Foundation of Yale University as a Postdoctoral Associate, I came to UC Berkeley as an Assistant Professor in 2013. I was tenured and became an Associate Professor in 2019. I am a game theorist and do research on various areas: dynamic games, search theory, political economy, learning in games, strategic communication, social networks, market design, and marketing. I am an associate editor of Theoretical Economics, one of the top journals in economic theory. As a Scientist at NTT Research, I aim to apply my expertise on strategic interactions to the analysis on various aspects of blockchain. (Photo: Jim Block)

Susumu Kiyoshima
SCIENTIST

Ilan Komargodski
SCIENTIST

Hoeteck Wee
SENIOR SCIENTIST

Daniel Wichs
SENIOR SCIENTIST
I am a Senior Scientist at NTT Research and an Associate Professor of Computer Science in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University. I received my PhD in Computer Science from New York University, and my MS in Computer Science and BS in Mathematics from Stanford University.
My research covers all aspects of modern cryptography, including its theoretical foundations and its applications to information security. My recent research relates to the cryptographic challenges involved in outsourcing data and computation to the cloud; in particular, this includes the construction of homomorphic cryptosystems that allow the cloud to compute on digitally encrypted and signed data while maintaining its privacy and authenticity.

Go Yamamoto
SENIOR SCIENTIST
I am a Senior Scientist at NTT Research. I hold a PhD and MS in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Tokyo, and a BS in Mathematics from the University of Tokyo.
I am presently focused on the digital transformation underway throughout society. Specifically, my research is driven by the idea of “trust” and the creation of dependable digital infrastructures that are accessible to all without barriers. I believe that if new technologies are to fuel our growth, we must first build foundations that are, above all, secure and reliable.
Towards that end, I work extensively in the fields of cryptographic mathematics, software engineering, cybersecurity, and distributed computing. I envision a world where the security of one’s data is considered the norm. In turn, I imagine this same security becoming the cornerstone of our shared technological future. My latest research focuses on the use of blockchain technologies to reimagine how we will work and live in the coming decades. I believe blockchain will be every bit as revolutionary to the world as the creation of the internet, in part because of the insights we uncover at NTT research.

Mark Zhandry
SENIOR SCIENTIST
